The invention relates to a sorting conveyor provided with tilting bowls, in particular for packages, parcels, containers and baggage, comprising cars, which are coupled to one another to form a train and can be moved along by running rails, each having at least one carrier bowl which is arranged thereon and can be pivoted from a horizontal transport position, about a tilting axis extending in the direction of travel, on both sides to an unloading position for the purpose of delivering conveyed goods transported whilst resting on the carrier bowl by means of a tilting drive arranged on the car, the tilting drive, which controls the pivoting movement of the carrier bowl, acting on the free, lower end of a tilting lever which extends downwards, can be pivoted about the tilting axis mounted on the car and bears the carrier bowl centrally at its opposite, upper end.
So-called tilting-bowl sorters have long been proven to be useful for transporting and isolating parcels. The conveyed goods are in this case received by track-guided vehicles which have charge carriers in the form of carrier bowls on their upper side which are held horizontally for the purpose of transporting the load and can be tilted for the purpose of delivering the load.
DE 40 90 308 T1 has disclosed such a conveyor provided with tilting bowls, in the case of which tilting of the carrier bowls is made possible by the fact that a selected cam follower roller connected to the tiltable carrier bowl is initially pulled outwards and then downwards. When pulling outwards, rollers move, guided by a corresponding pivoting movement of an arm, outwards in guide sections such that, when they are guided along the sections, they make it possible for the arm to move downwards, by means of which the tilting body and its carrier bowl are tilted. During tilting, other rollers move upwards, guided by tracks. In this case, the arm remains in a largely unchanged angular position, which ensures that the rollers return to the initial position with the subsequent return tilting. Although the rollers slide in corresponding curved guides on a perpendicular plane to the direction of travel, there is a high resistance for the rollers to be pulled outwards. The action of the analogous roller on the opposite arm being pulled inwards counteracts the action of this roller being pulled outwards. The frictional resistance is therefore correspondingly high, and rollers and arms are subjected to correspondingly high loads. This known solution can therefore be used, if required, for smaller items of conveyed goods, whose weight does not exceed a few kilograms.
Furthermore, the French laid-open specification FR 2528403 A1 has disclosed a sorting conveyor having individual drivable cars, on which carrier bowls are arranged which can be pivoted about a tilting axis extending in the direction of travel. The carrier bowls have, on their undersides, tilting levers which are spaced apart from one another in the direction of travel, extend downwards and are mounted in their central region on the tilting axes on the car. Acting on the free tilting lever end is a tilting mechanism which is essentially formed by a twin lever which is mounted on the car such that it can pivot about a first axis extending parallel to the tilting axis and a second axis extending transversely with respect to the direction of travel. The first end of the twin lever is connected in an articulated manner to the free tilting lever end, and the second end bears rollers which can be rotated about substantially horizontally extending axes. The rollers are lifted for the tilting operation of the carrier bowl by stationary curved rails, which are arranged along the running rails and whose extent rises in the vertical direction, with the result that the twin lever is first pivoted about the second axis for unlatching of the carrier bowl and then about the first axis for the purpose of tilting the carrier bowl.
The known tilting-bowl conveyors are very complicated since complex mechanical rollers, levers and linkages are required for the purpose of introducing the tilting movement of the carrier bowls, and these rollers, levers and linkages interact with equally complex rails, rollers and guides on the travel path of the conveyor in the tilting region of the carrier bowls. The tilting angle of the carrier bowls is fixed by the geometry of these mechanical components such that it cannot be changed, and the tilting time and the tilting method are fixed by the design of the mechanical guides alongside the travel path of the conveyor.